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I have a confession to make - I'm a fan of Big Brother on CBS. This is the 9th season and I've watched every one of them. It's pretty embarrassing, but the reason I divulged this little tidbit is that I have an issue with last night's episode. It's bad enough that there is a group on the show that are constantly reading their Bibles and talking about how good they are, but last night they took it too far. They are now calling themselves "Team Christ." Nice.
It started on Thurs during the competition for Head of Household (if you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, just bear with me a moment.) Natalie, who has been praying and praying for God to help her and give her strength, won the competition. I wasn't happy about it for numerous reasons, but most of all because of the kind of thing that came next.
She jumped up and down with her self-righteous friends and went on and on about how this is vindication by God for what she'd been through in the house. She'd been praying so hard and that she asked God for the answers to the questions and he gave them to her. THEN they started quoting Bible verses to back it up! I wanted to throw something!
I mean, seriously, with all that is going on in the world - starvation, disease, war, famine, etc - if there is a God, do you really think he gives even half a shit about how well she does on Big Brother? I know if I were Christian I would hope that there were better things for him to focus on than whether or not I won half a million dollars. I mean, seriously! Really??? It may seem like I've blown this out of proportion, but if you'd seen and heard the way they were carrying on and on. I was embarrassed for them.
I've been very spoiled lately, I've seen some very good movies. The Counterfeiters about the largest counterfeiting operation in history run by the Nazis. It was made up of the prisoners of concentration camps. Excellent movie. In Bruges was very enjoyable (up to about the last five minutes or so, but still worth seeing.) The Bank Job which stars one of the most beautiful men I've ever seen, Jason Statham, but is also an excellent movie. Flawless starring Demi Moore and Michael Caine about a diamond heist in the 60's is also wonderful. And of course, Horton Hears a Who! which had me laughing from start to finish.
The run couldn't last though. One movie I was very excited to see was Funny Games. Last night I dragged Mark to see it. Let me just say that overall, I was bored out of my mind through a lot of it. It really is more of a character study than anything. Naomi Watts and Tim Roth were amazing to watch, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to redeem the poor editing. It would make a great book or short story, but never should have been put on the screen. It is a very drawn out, disturbing, and ultimately unsatisfying movie.
In an earlier post today I mentioned the website that purports to have the first biologically male pregnancy. It is false. This is a "what-if" scenario. It actually makes it a little more intriguing to me. Now that I know that the website itself is the experiment I want to do a little more digging.
As for the transgender pregnancy, the jury is still out.
Unfortunately for some a law as recently been passed in Virginia that makes it a sex offense for adults to French kiss anyone under 13. Apparently this is a major problem in VA. The offender would face misdemeanor charges and would have to register as a sex offender.
The most interesting part of the story that has been either overlooked or ignored is that it is still ok to French kiss 13-17. Apparently they are mature enough to know what they're doing. Hmmm...I might have to stay away from VA. I'm more than a little disturbed by this.
(Read full story)
Every now and then a story comes along that just needs to be addressed and today I've got two of them! I think they both deserve individual entries though. We'll start with this little story about a FTM transgender that is pregnant.
Legally, and mostly biologically he is a male. He is legally married to his wife who is unable to have children. Lucky for them he retained his reproductive organs "just in case." Well, now he's pregnant. (Read the full story.)
While searching for this story I came across another oddity. A genetic man, an artist, who is pregnant. The fetus was implanted into his abdomen and he has successfully been carrying it. There is a lot of speculation as to whether or not this is true, but fascinating non-the-less. Check out the website: Male Pregnancy. Interesting stuff.
I guess I should write something...
I think the problem is that I just don't feel like writing. It's not that there's nothing going on in my life, there's plenty, but when it comes to sitting down at the computer and writing I just go blank.
Yesterday, Monsoon Season set in. Dallas saw over 5" of rain come through. It was great! I love thunderstorms and this one lasted all day and night. I just hope it's a sign of what's to come. This is my favorite part of the year because of the storms alone. We had a few major storms last year, but they were spread out. Hopefully this year they'll be more consistent.
Boy, this was about the most boring post I've written in a long time...sorry...
I thought I'd actually done everything right this year. I thought registration was going to be smooth...I should've known better. I registered my truck online - no big deal. Then (after the registration) something popped up about ordering specialty plates. I've always liked them so I thought, "what the hell?"
I chose the "Native Texan" plate, paid for it, got a receipt that said all I had to do was go to the tax office and pick them up when they were ready. I called this morning and they were there, so I decided to run by before work. I've been very excited about getting them (I'm a dork, I know. This isn't news.)
I got to the window and to start things off there was a sign that read, "Clerk in Training". Yea for me. I told her I needed to pick up my new plates and gave her my drivers license. She said, "I'm going to need more than that." I just kind of looked at her inquisitively. "I just need to pick up my plates." She went looking for them.
Ten minutes later she came back to the window and I asked her if I was supposed to get a new sticker to match it. She said she needed my insurance card. What?!?! Nobody mentioned that to me online or when I called. Then she got snippy. She said, "Have you ever been in here and received anything without your insurance card?" I started to tell her that nothing had been said to me about needing my proof of insurance. Notice I said started to tell her. Every time I started to say something, she would interrupt and repeat herself increasingly louder.
Her supervisor came over because I was on the verge of exploding. All I wanted was clarification and this "Clerk in Training" was refusing to even listen to what I was trying to ask her. The supervisor listened to what I had to say and why I was confused. I figured if you ordered new plates online that they would automatically tie it to your vehicle and issue a revised registration sticker. Apparently not. She explained to me that since I ordered it online I had to have the office make that connection, but she couldn't do that without my VIN#. Well, I don't keep my VIN# memorized, so I had to get my insurance card out of the car.
I was annoyed at this point, but no longer angry. I was heard and they understood my frustration and were able to explain everything. I was annoyed because I had to go back out to my car which is a pain in the ass in downtown Dallas. I was also annoyed that at no time, through the website, email, or phone call was I told that I would need to have this information for them to link up my car and registration to the new plates. I was just told to go in and pick them up - sounded simple enough.
I get back in there and she said there'd be a $6 fee for making the change (another thing that wasn't mentioned.) I pulled out my credit card because I had no cash. She paused and told me that they could only accept cash or check. I must have looked like I was about to either take her head off or blow my own head off. She grabbed my hand through the window and said in a very calm voice, "before you get upset, there's an ATM in the foyer."
To my surprise it was an ATM for my bank. I put my card in and it wouldn't read it. As I felt tears of rage building up I tried it again. After 3 attempts it finally read the card. I took my payment to the window. She apologized for the misunderstanding earlier and I apologized for getting upset (I have a tendency to instill fear in people when I get upset.) She grabbed my hand again and just held it. She said, "I understand your frustration, our website really sucks. I wish it had given you all of the information you needed." I thanked her and left feeling like I'd actually made a friend at the DMV.
When I say I "hate" the DMV, it's not the people that helped me today in the tax office - they were great after the initial misunderstanding. It's the online bullshit. Don't get me wrong - just the registration part was great - it was the specialty plate that was a problem.
Moral of the story - don't walk in the doors of the DMV without your insurance. Even if you're just stopping by to say "Hi".
Well, I'm going to Seattle April 3-6. I'm really looking forward to it. I've never been. I've been south of there to Olympia, but that's all I've seen of WA. I'll be staying downtown and have a list of about 20 things I want to see. I'll be coming up with the itinerary probably until I land there.
On the list of things to do:
Pikes Place Fish Market
Pioneer Square and Underground Tour
Space Needle and EMP
Olympic Sculptures
Original Starbucks
Ferry
Cal Anderson Park Water Sculptures
Ranier Tower
Seattle Tower
Koolhaas Library
Richard Hugo House
Fremont Troll
Lenin Sculpture
And I'm sure there are things I've missed...but this is a good starting point and no way I can get it all done...I don't think...sometimes, when I travel alone I can get quite a bit accomplished. Any ideas from anyone who's been/lives there?
I guess I should catch up a bit. Las Vegas was great! I went with $500 and came back with $700. Not too bad - better than coming back with nothing. O (Cirque du Soleil) was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I was mesmerized the entire time. Showtime was 12:30 am my time and usually a Cirque show can be pretty slow and hard to stay awake through, but I had no problem at all. I could've watched it again that night.
Bette of course was amazing! I don't want to say too much because I know too many people who are planning to see the show, but I'll just say she is definitely in her element. That woman belongs on a Vegas stage. I will say that one of my favorite characters, Delores Del Lago was a little disappointing. I just didn't think it was as funny as in the past, but don't let that keep you from going. The show is amazing! Now, I can't wait to see Cher...
Other big news - I'm trying Abby at home by herself all day for the first time. She'll be alone almost 9 hours. I know her bladder isn't an issue, she's good at holding it. I just worry about her getting bored and messing with stuff. I have to remind myself that dogs don't have a sense of time. I keep projecting human emotions on her. I know that if she does fine in 4-5 hour increments (which she does) then she should be fine during a full day. To ween her off her daily daycare I'll take her MWF and eventually drop it to MF. I still want her to have interaction with other people and dogs, I just can't afford the $300 a month expense.
